Discover Music

May 21, 2010. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Hi from Washington! On the first night of the 15th annual Mary Lou Wms Women In Jazz Fest @ the Kennedy Ctr, the All-Star Quintet delivered two WOW sets. The group is Dee Dee Bridgewater, 18-year-old saxophonist Grace Kelly, Geri Allen on piano, Esperanza Spalding on bass, and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums. With Geri on the left and Terri Lyne on the right, this group has WINGS and flew. Esperanza's bass had a beautiful sound, great playing all night.

Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding .. photo by Margot Schulman, Kenn Ctr

First set was MLW music from Miss DD for her friend Doris Duke through Pisces from the Zodiac Suite and New Musical Express. DDB came on for four vocals. Ghost of Love had haunting lyrics and odd steps in the melody, and Busy Busy is about how we don't have time to FEEL.

The second set opened with original pieces. Then three things happened. DDB came back for Cotton Tail. Things became a one-on-one as she went from woman to woman, facing off, but this was not mere staging. It was dynamic and high-flying. I would love to hear it again and WE CAN I hope when JazzSet makes a show from this concert. When DDB got to young Grace, the saxophonist took a step back. Was she in the same league? But DDB persisted and Grace stepped up. (She already has been blessed by Phil Woods; he gave her a cap.) All Blues floated with a drawn out ending, long diminuendo. Sweet good night.

After Cotton and before All Blues, Kevin Struthers of the Kenn Ctr wheeled a cake onstage and all sang Happy Birthday, taking DDB by total surprise (5/27 is the day). That was a momentary interlude. Between the Quintet sets, pianist Carmen Staaf (Seattle --> Boston --> Brooklyn --> Cornelia St Cafe next week) led her trio in originals and some MLW music. Quite a night here! The Washington Post blogged it here.

May 18, 2010. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Twice, the late Hank Jones was profiled in The New Yorker: by Whitney Balliett in 1996 and Gary Giddins in 2007. Read them in reverse chronological order, from Giddins' "Hank Jones can be said to have had the most impressive second act in jazz history" to Balliett's "Jones's solos think."

His voice is energetic in a 2005 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Hank says that hymns were a foundation of his piano playing -- hymns and piano rolls. James P. Johnson, Fats Waller (who died in 1944, just before Jones came to New York), and then Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson were influences and mentors.

Hank then absorbed the new music of Dizzy Gillespie and his generation of modernists. Hank referred to that style as "you should pardon the expression 'bebop'" during a talk at the 2009 Detroit Jazz Festival. At some point Hank also spent a year in Buffalo, N.Y.; that's where he first saw Mary Lou Williams play. And he drove a Chrysler, I do believe. I picture it as having fins and a deep dashboard, but that's my imagination taking over.

Any chance I could get to hear him -- including at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola with Joe Lovano last year -- I would try to. The 2008 Montreal Jazz Festival presented him in an extraordinary duo concert with Brad Mehldau; it seemed as though they were dancing with one another.

I may have first seen him in Ain't Misbehavin' on Broadway in 1979, and perhaps a few years later at Bradley's. In 1998, we recorded Hank Jones at the Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich. for my program JazzSet. He played music by Mary Lou, Thad Jones (his brother), Oliver Nelson, Sonny Rollins, and standards like "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and "On Green Dolphin Street."

"Hank is kind of like the musical equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the most senior officer that you can possibly be around," said his drummer at the time, Dennis Mackrell. Bassist John Clayton pointed out, "He's really famous for his touch." Hank had just turned 80, and joked that, "It reminds me of something Eubie Blake said when he just turned 101: 'If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken care of myself.'" Hank Jones loved to introduce a song with an old joke, charmingly told.

After a show, Hank had a way of seeing you and making sure that he spoke with you. He always said something warm, something self-deprecating, some thoughtful answer to a question about what he had played or why. Hank was reserved but generous at the same time.

In Kalamazoo, I asked him a possibly exasperating question about his perspective at 80. He told me, "Well Becca, you hope that you've done something worthwhile ... you hope that you've been able to make some meaningful contributions to the art form. What else can you do? If you do whatever you can on a daily basis, then the rest takes care of itself."

Pot for potholes Hos for schools Always for pleasure Break all the rules --Davis

Episode six of Treme begins and ends with outlandish political satire. Davis McAlary's self-amused campaign for city council launches, and launches the show, in earnest, parading down a wide avenue in a flatbed pickup truck blaring music, giving away CDs, and slapping strippers on their butts. Meanwhile, the whole Bernette family dresses as sperm as the Krewe du Vieux parade courses past, its highlight a giant float of then-mayor Ray Nagin in bed nursing an outsized nocturnal emission.

It must be with a bit of a wink that the writers of Treme made John Goodman's Creighton wary of Zahn's Davis; they seem like kindred spirits as New Orleans apologists with loony streaks. Their aims aren't the same; the Krewe du Vieux simply lampoons major political figures, while Davis' council run is at least half-serious. But they're certainly more akin than Creighton wants to let on to. Davis' platform can't possibly win (especially if he wants to legalize illegal drug sales, as we learned from season three of The Wire), but it can act as a gadfly, speaking out on topics other candidates won't touch with absurd humor. If anger is occasionally a proper response to injustice (a la Creighton's "f--- you, you f----- f--s"), humor has just as much potential as a community statement.

Enough of that. Josh Jackson of WBGO joins me again via email to talk about the episode's music (full playlist here), and whatever else comes to mind.